I have a 2020 Honda Civic. The car seems to be very low to the ground, by design. This portion underneath the car, where the plastic splash apron fastens to a metal plate, appears to be the lowest part of the car.
Going over speed bumps, and portions of roads that go from a ramp to a flat surface, sometimes causes scraping.
Am I the only one with this issue? It seems to be designed this way. I can’t even get a floor jack underneath the car to the lift point in the middle front of the vehicle because it’s so low to the ground.
Is there a way to fix this issue? I know there’s things like lift kits, but I feel like this shouldn’t be necessary.
When I owned a '92 Accord, one of my biggest complaints with that car was that it had insufficient ground clearance in the front. Apparently they haven’t remedied that situation several decades later.
It was that way when you bought it so you either trade it or live with it.
My son’s 96 Camaro is the same way. It takes 2 people to jack it up even with a small low profile jack. One has to pick up on the car while the other wrestles the jack underneath.
The factory jack? Not even close so I assume the design team also assumed that lifting the car would never need to happen.
The nose is so long and low going in under the middle front is not an option either.
One source I saw says ground clearance is 150 mm (5.9 in) for all Civics. Speed hump height is probably not universal. I don’t have trouble getting over speed humps in parking lots or on residential roads near me, but our road hump specs might be different than yours. Honda doesn’t list ground clearing in the specs on their website, and there are hardly any other websites that lots it for any year Civic.
Our Volvo V70 ground clearance is 5.8 inches , the 2018 Ford Fiesta SE is 6 inches . I don’t think I have ever had dragging problem with speed bumps . As for needing to use a floor jack all the is needed is to drive up on a couple of 2 x 6 boards and then use the floor jack .
maybe your son could get something like this to give him clearance, a lot of corvette owners use these. but the vette is a little different animal with special jacking points and jacking pucks.
Lift from the pinch weld about 6-8 inches behind the front jacking point on each side. On a FWD car, this will lift both the front and the rear roughly equally. Put jackstands under each lift point. Repeat on the other side. The car will now be sitting on 4 jack stands and service can be completed. Works with even the lowest cars… even my lowered ones that could not be lifted from the front at all… 84 Corvette, Honda S2000, '14 Mustang
I have been lifting cars (some really low ones) like this for over 30 years with no issues at all. If it makes you nervous, there are pinch weld lift pucks that sit in the jack saddle to prevent damage to the pinch weld… but I’ve had no issues.
As for the low Honda Civic, live with it or get rid of it. There is no good way to lift it without causing other problems that will void your warranty.
Regarding my son’s 96 Camaro, I can ball my fist up and cannot get it underneath the car on either side.
To get a floor jack in the front was impossible until the front chin spoiler was knocked off. (3rd time)
Even with the spoiler off the sub frame is so far back the jack handle barely protrudes out front and there is not enough room to even raise it a MM at a time.
And ramps; no way that ever works unless they’re 20 feet long.
Same issue with my 97 Accord and my 2014 Legacy. I made a short ramp out of two foot lengths of 2x10 with a 45 degree angle cut on one end. I drive up on the 2x10’s and then I can get the jack underneath. I also have to use the 2x10’s in front of my ramps or I can’t drive up on the ramp. The bumper pushes the ramp out of the way before the wheels can get on the ramp.
Rented a Chrysler 300, scraped the parking wheel stop with the front every time. Lucky we had renter insurance. Forded a creek going to fern valley in redwoods forest, scraping all the way, then there was a 6" yellow thing, made the wrong turn, headed to the expressway in San Fran, next exit x miles, blind in one eye so very little depth perception, thought it was a flat yellow stripe and did a u turn, no body parts etc. fell off, but sounded pretty nasty. It was a rainy night when I returned it, quick look they did, and hop on the shuttle to the airport. Never heard back, all’s well that ends well.
I rented a 2018 Corolla a couple years ago. I thought exactly the same thing about that driving experience, the front edge of the car is much too close to the ground. I was constantly bumping into curbs when parking for example. My own car (or at least the one use to use as a daily driver) is an early 90’s corolla, and it has much more clearance in that area. That’s a major downside to the 2018 imo. I doubt there’s anything that can be done about it though, b/c the manufacturers know that economy sells, and a lower car with a front shield designed for less and more laminar wind flow underneath will get better mpg, and that also reduces the car’s emissions profile, another benefit to the manufacturer.
When I first looked at that 2018 my thought was “no way will car ramps work on this thing to change the oil”. I didn’t even consider the problems w/using a floor jack. Jacking it from the side on the pinch welds as posted above is probably the only alternative. I doubt there are any common sense remedies for this problem, just have to live with it.
We had a similar experience in PA on a dark rainy night using a rental. Hit a yellow “divider” that we barely saw. Returned the car and never heard from them. Awful sound, thought the bottom fell out.
how high was the creek?
